David Friedrich Strauss

David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874), German theologian and philosopher, whose controversial skeptical interpretation of the Gospel was an important influence on modern biblical criticism.

Born in Ludwigsburg, in Württemberg, Strauss was educated at the evangelical seminary of Blaubeuren and at the University of Tübingen, where he obtained a post as lecturer. Under the influence of the German philosophers Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher, Strauss developed a skeptical attitude toward the Scriptures as divine revelation. His theory of the origin of Christianity was formulated in his famous treatise, The Life of Jesus (1835; trans. 1846), in which he sought to explain the miracles of the Gospel narratives as a series of myths. Although the work aroused fierce opposition, it exerted a pervasive influence on 19th-century biblical criticism.

As a result of his views, Strauss was deprived of his post at Tübingen and given a minor position in the lyceum (high school) of Ludwigsburg. His later theological writings, including The Old Faith and the New (1872; trans. 1873), exhibit an even more extreme skepticism than The Life of Jesus. Strauss also wrote several volumes of literary criticism and biography.